Interfaith Organizing for an Equitable Recovery

Wildfire relief

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Starting on January 7, 2025, the world bore witness to one of the worst wildfire crises in Los Angeles history. The fires destabilized and displaced 16 LA Voice member or partner congregations in Altadena/Pasadena, Sylmar, and Palisades—a significant blow to communities in need of urgent support. In response, LA Voice created the Benevolence Fund, disbursed over $120,000 in cash assistance, hired our organization’s first caseworker, and began organizing to ensure just recovery policies. Just recovery goes beyond providing direct relief to survivors. The frustrations with insurance, landlords, and financial gaps are growing—and half the properties sold have been bought by investment companies. LA Voice is strengthening our organizing infrastructure to ensure that the most vulnerable fire survivors, low-income families, immigrants, and communities of color must have the collective power to rebuild—not just their homes and businesses, but their diverse and vibrant civic life.

Within one week of fire survivors evacuating, LA Voice leaders and staff organizers conducted 150+ meetings with the fire-affected—shaping a collective organizing strategy and the policy priorities necessary for just restoration. These include: ensuring that homeowners have a competitive option to sell to a community-focused entity for rebuilding; organizing homeowners to pressure insurance companies to give them what they deserve; developing a database of homeowners, insurers, and issues to identify systemic gaps and inequities and organize residents for advocacy; and gathering partners in the Eaton Fire region to ensure collaboration and the best possible outcomes.
Mutual aid, bridge building, and community organizing are essential components of a just and equitable recovery and restoration. Funding from LA2050 would enable LA Voice to hire community organizers to provide leadership training for organizing teams. Led by fire survivors and grassroots community leaders across Altadena, Pasadena, Sylmar, and Pacific Palisades, these teams will support relational outreach— including 1:1 conversations, phone banking and canvassing, and community listening sessions—enabling our most deeply impacted and historically marginalized to have a voice in rebuilding and reshaping their communities. Increasing our organizing capacity, training, coordination, and infrastructure, will position us to shape recovery toward equity at all levels of government and civil society.

Based on shared coalition strategies, LA Voice envisions project success including:
remediation for rental units and single family properties;
an inclusive land acquisition strategy, and a property development strategy marketed to families representing the affected areas’ historical character;
ongoing state policy for restoration; and
simplified processes and streamlined access to resources for survivors.
Through sustained organizing at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels, LA Voice will ensure that recovery efforts center the needs of the most vulnerable. Our vision for recovery in Los Angeles after the fires have the potential to set state and national precedents for economic, housing, environmental, and workforce development policies that reflect the values of equity and justice, where no person stands alone or is left behind.